A 22 year old boy in my office got married last year. “Are you sure it’s your marriage you are going to?” I asked in bewilderment as he informed me of his upcoming leaves. Blushing, he said “Yes mam”. After 11 months, he gave us sweets. He has become a father.
I was genuinely concerned and asked him, aren’t you too young to be a father? He confessed that if he hadn’t become a father now, the residents of his small town would have started asking questions to his parents, doubting the potency of either the boy or his young wife.
Another guy I know of got called to his hometown by his parents for Diwali. He got engaged the day he landed. He had never seen or met his would be wife before.
A girl has to take leave from office every time someone from her town visits her. She is supposed to do the cooking for them; after all she is the daughter- in- law.
A child got very sick, but the person couldn’t bring her to a good hospital in Gurgaon, because it would hurt the sentiments of their family doctor in the village. Only once the family doctor approved, they could start the treatment in a “city” hospital.
Someone’s wife is an excellent painter. Her paintings could easily be sold in thousands, such is her skills. I ask the corporate husband, why you don’t let her sell these. He says if she starts getting into all this then who will take care of the house. She does it out of hobby and I allow her to do that.
These are stories of people working in plush corporate offices of Gurgaon. The branded clothes they wear, the nice cars they drive, the expensive eateries and the fluent English they speak would never tell you there is a rural & urban life divide staring on your face. And when you hear such stories, you realize the magnitude of mind-set difference. You start feeling concerned for them, of the so-called out-dated concepts of society they come from.
If you try and picture their life in your mind, you get concerned by the dual life they are living but at the same time compliment them for managing their individuality in these contrasting worlds. They are as much as ease when they enter the crowded metro pub on a Friday night as they are when they sit and relish the roadside dhaba food.
In this day & age when we are missing the pure things, when the demand for organic food is growing every day, it is with utmost satisfaction that we enjoy the honey they bring from the bee’s nest of their house or the sweets of the local vendor of their village and the home made chutneys prepared after hours of hard work by their mother.
They seemed to be the most blessed people to me. They enjoy the goods of both the worlds. Monday to Friday they have fun shopping in malls, watching movies in Gold Class and socializing and on weekends, they roll up their sleeves to take care of their sugarcane fields at home; soaking in the nature in its true sense.
70% of our country’s population are rural. Over the years, the gap between rural & urban India has only been increasing. But such stories of blending of both the worlds are on a high. And while their practices/beliefs do shock us at times, their transition into the other side of the fence is worth applauding and noticing.
Be the first to comment